Verbum Potentiae

 THE VERBUM POTENTIAE HYPOTHESIS

Short Summary

An explanation of the Voynich text: 

The Voynich language and text is based upon only two words: QOKEEDY and CHOLDAIIN. The language has been created – generated – entirely from these two words. 

These words are paradigmatic, verbum potentiae: words of power, potency or potential. 

The whole text is contained within these words, in potentia. The text is an unfolding of the potentials and possibilities implicit in the two words.

They are the two primal words, or foundation words, or keywords of the entire text. There is a dual paradigm system. 

All Voynich words are created from the two verbum potentiae and are permutations or combinations of the two keywords. 

The grammar and rules of the Voynich language arise out of the inherent properties of the two keywords, their similarities and differences.

From the nature of the manuscript we can conjecture that the basic signification of the keywords is:

QOKEEDY = celestial

CHOLDAIIN = terrestrial (sublunar)

* * * 

The two verbum potentiae have, by design, a relation of coinciding opposites to each other. They are opposites, but they coincide. (Like sky and earth.) They illustrate the coincidentia oppositorum. 

They are contrapuntal, in counterpoint. 

The text arises from the interaction of the two keywords, in counterpoint. 

There are two streams of text. One is developed – generated, extrapolated – from QOKEEDY, and one from CHOLDAIIN. 

The two streams are intermixed and interact, in counterpoint, according to the ways in which they are both similar and different. 

The rules of Voynichese encode these samenesses and differences, these coinciding opposites. 

The two words interact at junctures of counterpoint – points of either coincidence or opposition. 

The [o] in each word is a point of coincidence, for example. But the double [ee] in QOKEEDY is counterpoint, by opposition, to the double [ii] in CHOLDAIIN. 

The two streams meet and overlap – and mutate -  at these points.

One of the main differences between the two keywords is that in QOKEEDY there is a gallows glyph, whereas in CHOLDAIIN there is a benched glyph.  

We can see where the two streams meet and overlap most conspicuously in the so-called benched gallows, a superimposition of the [k] from QOKEEDY upon the [ch] from CHOLDAIIN. 

* * *

An important difference between the two keywords is that in QOKEEDY is there an uninterrupted series of curve-based glyphs. CHOLDAIIN, in contrast, contains line-based glyphs and the flow of c-curves is interrupted and uneven. 

The two words represent the primal binary: curve and line. The curve is a celestial element, the line is terrestrial. 

The QOKEEDY stream moves the text towards a steady stream of c-curves. The CHOLDAIIN text keeps interrupting this movement. 

The script itself is designed to facilitate the counterpoint of the two streams. It is an eclectic assembly of traditional glyphs selected and systematized as a device to explore and express samenesses and differences in the coincidentia oppositorum. 

Moreover, the text is shaped by these two words. QOKEEDY provides the model for and shapes the text into paragraphs. CHOLDAIIN provides the model for and shapes the text into lines.

CHOLDAIIN bifurcates and fragments into particles. QOKEEDY binds and agglutinates. 

All the characteristics of the text - including its many strange features and anomolies - arise from the interaction of the two streams.

Where the CHOLDAIIN stream dominates, we have the “dialect” called Currier A. Where the QOKEEDY stream dominates we have Currier B. 

* * * 

 

A model for a system of verbum potentiae would be provided by types of exegesis – in Kabbalah, for example – where permutations and combinations are developed from Theonyms, Divine Names. 

The potency of the Divine Name extends to all the permutations created from it. 

But here there are two verbum potentiae counterpoised, working together and against each other at the same time. 

* * * 

It is likely that the two verbum potentiae correspond to important and meaningful terms taken from natural languages. 

The best surmise is that QOKEEDY is a term (theonym?) signifying the Divine Presence, the Divine Light, Shekinah, and refers or alludes to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. 

From context, the best surmise is that CHOLDAIIN is a term referring or alluding to the (corresponding) sacred alpenglow of the Italian Alps, and, to be specific, the Rosengarten mountains in the Sud Tyrol. 

It is possible the language was first designed to create (synthetic) toponyms, matching sacred places in the Holy Land with corresponding (symbolic) places in the Italian landscape. 

In context, the language is being presented as discourse between the celestial and terrestrial nymphs. 

The language is best considered a type of constructed philosophical – or perhaps magical - language that illustrates, demonstrates, the doctrine of the coincidence of opposites and is a development of early Renaissance Neoplatonism. 

R.B.